“In the name of the best within you, do not sacrifice this world to those who are its worst. In the name of the values that keep you alive, do not let your vision of man be distorted by the ugly, the cowardly, the mindless in those who have never achieved his title. Do not lose your knowledge that man’s proper estate is an upright posture, an intransigent mind and a step that travels unlimited roads. Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it’s yours.” – JOHN GALT

I have a big problem with the today’s media. Perhaps it’s the media people’s lack of critical thinking skills and failure to detect a potential Marxist looter (this term is actually a redundancy because Marxists advocate for legalized, institutionalized plunder). This potential Marxist plunderer I’m talking about is the new President of the University of the Philippines, Alfredo Pascual.

Like Marxist Francisco Nemenzo and other past leaders of this state-funded institution of learning, Pascual is determined to pushed for his altruist-collectivist goals in order to make UP a “great university in the 21st century.” To his credit, Pascual profoundly understands that his statist vision comes at a great price. He knows that his academic goals require huge financial resources to be provided for by the government through its power of taxation.

In his vision statement titled “Remaking a Great University: UP in the 21st Century”, Pascual states that “a great university takes a leadership role in the educational, cultural, social, and economic development of the country it serves.” For this reason, he believes that UP “must give paramount consideration to national concerns” and “should pursue its teaching, research and extension service functions not only within the framework of its many academic disciplines but more so in the context of national development needs that are ever changing and becoming increasingly complex.”

He adds: “In the 21st century, this must include efforts to help the country become a significant and positive player in global society.”

The last statement raises the question: To help the country become a significant and positive player in global society at WHAT PRICE?

Pascual, being a highly educated man, knows the answer to this question. His statist goals would obtain the necessary funding through the following methods:

Ask for more government or taxpayers’ assistance: U.P. needs a long-term funding commitment from the government above what is currently being allotted to it annually.

Apply some “MOOCHING STRATEGY”: Pascual states: “the UP leadership must prepare a 10-year development plan that convincingly builds the case of U.P. as a key to national development. This development plan will be used as the basis for negotiating an increase in the level of annual appropriations for U.P.” What a very clever idea! So Pascual and his academic minions (who are perhaps Marxists) are going to try their best to convince our politicians that UP needs more taxpayers’ money.

Propose to increase TAXES!!!: Pascual’s statist vision further states: “In funding the plan implementation, one possible source that can be explored is the corporate income tax, among others. A certain percentage of this tax may be earmarked.” How can our current administration attract more foreign investors to do business in our country with this highly outrageous and mindless proposal of the new UP President? The only good thing about Pascual’s vision is that he understands that his plans require more taxpayers’ money.

Turn to alumni:“To supplement direct government funding, U.P. must intensify efforts to generate support from alumni as well as other donors and philanthropic sources.” The question is: are its alumni generous enough to part with their money?

This makes this new UP President a man’s of looters persuasion. By what right does he propose to tax corporations and all income-earning entities and individuals in order to finance his ambitious academic goal? Just because he spouts great-sounding snippets of common good and free education, that does not give him the right to call on the government to use the power of extortion- er taxation- in order to support his statist vision.

To Alfredo Pascual: SHAME ON YOU!!!

Just recently, I addressed some of the questions of my passionate blog commenters.

A commenter nicknamed Woot/Atenean wrote: “You’re great in punning words, huh! I think… you are the “Father of Public Education Sociology”, Congrats! You lured dozens of minds into your bogus blog, thus making the argument rational. I definitely disagree with your statements the ‘education is not a right, but a responsibility’, because we all deserve to be educated. I respect your colonial mentality because its your right to believe in every ideological justifications applied to you.”

Here’s my answer:

That’s pure lunacy and idiocy. You have a right to go to school so long as you can pay for it. Your alleged “right to education” means the government- or the taxpayers, to be very specific- has to shoulder all your school fees.

Further, I didn’t say that ‘education is not a right, but a responsibility’. I said education is NOT a right because it is a good or a commodity like anything else.

Let me tell you the truth about this mantra of “right to education.”

1. The concept of “right to education”, as advanced by the progressives and leftists, postulates that the government must finance, provide the education of everybody, particularly the poor.

2. We all have the right to go to school so long as we pay for our school fees because education, like any commodity, is a good with commercial value. Its being very important to man’s life doesn’t give it a special category in the hierarchy of good. Your right to life means you are free to act in the furtherance of your life by having a livelihood of your own choice or by trading goods with others without violating the latter’s rights. Your right to life, therefore, does not mean the government or your neighbor has to feed you. Your right to liberty means you have the right to be left alone and freedom from government interference. Your right to property means you have the right to the fruits, effects and proceeds of your property. You have the right to sell, lease, or even destroy your property. Thus, rights simply means freedom of action in a social context. It is not created or provided for by the state. It is merely recognized and respected by the state. Your “right to education” means some people must contribute to the common good in order for you to be educated.

3. The right to education you are talking about, IGNORANT STATIST, means the government is justified to initiate the use of force and violate or limit the rights (particularly property rights) of others in order for you and your like-minded people to obtain free or subsidized education. Now, your STUPID MARXIST UP President, Alfredo Pascual, recently proposed, in his vision statement, to tax the people and raise corporate income tax in order to finance his statist vision. READ:https://fvdb.wordpress.com/2011/02/07/marxism-and-hypocrisy-i-up/ .

4. Your right to education means you want to be PARASITES!

Another commenter under the codename Dee wrote: “What evil is there on having to think for your own? You may think that this is the school’s fault to begin with. Maybe instead say, “liberated minds with no sense of accountability or pro-activeness.” What kind of “equip” do you have in mind? a waiting list of Jobs opened for them to take? or the realization that you won’t find a job after you graduate whether you came from a public or a private school. No school can really equip a student against the harsh reality in life instead it is the environment that shapes the mind of a person. How they are brought up and how one looks at life itself. I came from UP but never indulge myself in any kind of revolt or any of my professors told me to do so. As one of my professor engraved into my life, “work smart and not hard.” and this is about how I go about with my work and life as well.”

My reply:

The dominant ideological culture at UP and other state universities is leftism or leftist activism. The battle between good and evil is the battle of ideas. This is how Soviet Russia and Maoist China were won by the communists. Ideas are more powerful than a cabal of fully armed men. And if we try to disregard the power of ideas, then we only have ourselves as our first victims. The best generator or propagator of ideas are schools and universities. A university is where the minds of young people are shaped or misshaped. Indoctrination is a very gradual, piecemeal process. It’s effect can be seen after several years or even decades. The best indoctrination process is what they call “ideological subversion,” which is a “legitimate, overt and open process” designed to distort reality and brainwash people’s mind. Check my blog entry: https://fvdb.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/how-to-brainwash-a-nation-a-politically-incorrect-guide-to-dictatorship/

This is what this former KGB and Russian defector said:

“They they basically means is to change the perception of reality of every American to such an extent that despite the abundance of information, no one is able to come to sensible conclusions inthe interest of defending themselves, their family, ther community and their country. It’s a great brainwashing process which goes very slow and has divided into four basic stages. The first one being demoralization, which takes 15 to 20 years. Why that many number of years? Because this is the minimum number of years which requires to educate one generation of students in the country of your enemy. Expose to the ideology of your enemy. In other words Marxism/Leninism ideology being punted into the soft heads of at least three generations, without being challenged or contra-balanced by the basic values of Americanism.”

I say these liberal ideas- the right to education, the right to welfare, the right to health care, etc.- are simply part of ideological subversion for they destroy man’s cognitive processes and understanding of reality. They destroy man’s use of reason. The result of this mentality is collectivism, which means we must live for others and that we must offer our lives to the greater society.

In the United States, the Islamic propagandists and the Jihadis target American universities. Why? Because they see potential graduates and intellectuals. They see a new breed of intelligentsia that would suit their political agenda. This process is also what is being done by American leftists. That’s why David Horowitz (please google), a former radical leftists himself, asserted that the radicalization process is being done in many universities in the US.

The same thing is happening in the country. That’s why Satur Ocampo would like to turn UP into a neo-liberal terrain, which means he wants UP to be the nucleus or center of leftist ideology in the country because of its prestige, influence, etc.

What we need is free-market education. This is the only way to help the poor. When I said “equip”, I meant professors who know how to defend the ideals of free-market capitalism, individualism, and sense of independence. Lots of people I know who understand what I’m talking about got their knowledge from reading the proper books and in dealing with the right people.

‘right to education’ simply follows the inescapable fact that to avail it, the state shall coerce other citizens to pay for it through more tax which is a violation to property rights. anyone has no right to anyone’s sweat and labor.

I believe that your proposal of a free-market education to help/uplift the poor will and wont succeed. First of all, that conclusion lacks a very fine and concrete basis: again, from where do you formulate such observations?

How well do you know your society, aside from your own self-proclamations?
How inadequately informed are you?
Have you tried understanding the poor?

These two contradicting terms will never reconcile each other over the basic fact that free-market education works in a capitalist framework: so long as one has the capacity to pay. Hmm, does the poor have the capacity to pay? Again how now, will the problem of education be addressed properly?

For over two decades now, likes of you are still pushing for this type of educational system, and up until now the problem of mis-education and the access to education still isnt addressed let alone be resolved.